Ancestor (KOTE)

An Ancestor is a Kuei-jin with sufficiently high enlightenment (minimal 7 points in Dharma rating). Ancestors act as rulers over Courts and some even found their own (these are referred to as "Imperial Ancestor"). They are roughly equivalent to a KindredElder.

It is a court's mandarins who choose a court's ancestor, if one is chosen at all; they select candidates through a combination of debate and spiritual revelation, as well as the state of a candidate's Dharma. Such selection is strictly the purview of the court's mandarins; they have the final say in the consideration of candidates and appointment thereof.

The selection of an ancestor to govern a city or region of Kuei-jin is a more open affair. In this instance, each court of Kuei-jin within a city or region may send a delegation to convene, to put forth and to consider candidates, and eventually to select the ancestor of a city or region. The Kuei-jin appointed to this post invariably displays great political ambition and guile and has the spiritual grounding in his Dharma to effectively represent the Kuei-jin under his authority. For this reason, the ancestor of a city has traditionally been ancestor of a court, but this qualification is not stringent: On some rare occasions, due to a low Kuei-jin population or because of a powerful exhibition of talent, a mandarin or high-level jina is appointed ancestor.

In a city with multiple Courts of Kuei-jin, a singular City Ancestor is elected by the various Ancestors of the local Courts. Such a vote has to be unanimous.